Former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Dave Navarro was asked during a recent Instagram story Q&A if he and John Frusciante ever discussed One Hot Minute, the next RHCP album recorded after Frusciante’s first exit from the band in 1992.
Navarro responded, “No, but there is a sweet story about this Black Les Paul regarding John on my latest podcast.”
He was also asked about his favorite Red Hot Chili Peppers album. Navarro said, “The Uplift Mofo Party Plan and Blood Sugar Sex Magik.”
John Frusciante resurfaced this weekend at Staples Center in Los Angeles, attending a boxing fight with his former bandmate Flea. It was the first time Frusciante was photographed with a member of the Red Hot Chili Peppers since his final performance with the band in August 2007.
Former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Dave Navarro recently told a touching story about John Frusciante on his Dark Matter podcast. Alternative Nation transcribed Navarro’s story.
“I hope he doesn’t mind me telling this. Years ago when I was in the Red Hot Chili Peppers, I was in the band for 4 or 5 years, John had quit the band and ended up in rehab. He ended up in the same rehab that I went to, so he reached out to me: ‘Hey man, I’m stuck in here, can you bring me a guitar? I have nothing to play here.’
So I had a Sunburst Les Paul guitar because I was considering joining Guns N’ Roses at the time. I got asked to join Guns N’ Roses, and it wasn’t the right time for me, I was strung out on drugs or whatever, so I was like, ‘I’ll loan you this Les Paul man.’ So I brought the Les Paul to the facility, we hung out, we talked a little bit, and I never saw it again. I think he left the facility, who knows what happened. So life goes on, I end up leaving the Chili Peppers, I don’t know where John is.
The long end of the story was like 10 years later John calls me and is like, ‘Hey man, can I come up to your house?’ I said, ‘Yeah sure of course, come up.’ I give him the address.
He comes up, knocks on the door, and has a guitar case. It’s not unusual that a guitar player would bring a guitar to a guitar player’s house. He opens it up, and it’s a black Les Paul. He goes, ’I just wanted to give this to you because years ago you gave me a Les Paul and I sold it and bought drugs with it, and I just want to make it right.’ I was like, ‘Wow man.’
We sat and talked for a couple of hours. It was a cool moment. So that black Les Paul is at my house, I love that he tried to make amends with that. In a weird roundabout way, the black Les Paul that he replaced it with is more special than the original one was.”
